Michael Jenifer Stone

Michael Jenifer Stone (1747 – 1812) was an American planter and statesman from Charles County, Maryland, who represented Maryland in the United States House of Representatives. Born at Poynton Manor in Charles County, he was the son of David Stone and Elizabeth (Jenifer) Stone. Poynton Manor had been established by his ancestor William Stone, who served as the third governor of the colony of Maryland in the mid-seventeenth century, placing Michael Jenifer Stone within a prominent colonial Maryland family. He was part of a distinguished political lineage: his elder brother, Thomas Stone, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his younger brother, John Hoskins Stone, later became the ninth governor of Maryland.

Stone’s early life was shaped by this family background of public service and landholding. Raised in a planter society in southern Maryland, he was educated in the milieu of the colonial gentry and prepared for both agricultural management and civic responsibility. As an adult, he resided at Haberdeventure, the plantation of his brother Thomas near Port Tobacco in Charles County. This estate became central to his personal and family life. When Thomas Stone died in 1787, his will granted Michael the lifetime use of Haberdeventure and entrusted him with the care and upbringing of Thomas’s young son, further reinforcing Michael’s role as a family patriarch and custodian of the Stone legacy.

Michael Jenifer Stone married Mary Briscoe, aligning himself with another established Maryland family. The couple had five children, and their descendants continued the family’s tradition of public service. Their grandson, Frederick Stone, later represented Maryland in the United States Congress in the nineteenth century, while their son, Michael Jenifer Stone II, went on to build the historic home Sunnyside at Aquasco in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Through these familial connections, Stone’s influence extended beyond his own lifetime and into subsequent generations of Maryland political and social life.

Stone’s public career began in the revolutionary era, reflecting the broader transformation of the American colonies into an independent republic. He represented Charles County in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1781 to 1783, serving in the state legislature during the closing years of the American Revolutionary War and the early period of state governance under the Articles of Confederation. His legislative service placed him among those Maryland leaders who were responsible for managing the state’s wartime and immediate postwar affairs, including issues of finance, defense, and internal administration.

In 1788, Stone further contributed to the formation of the new nation by serving as a delegate to the Maryland convention that ratified the United States Constitution. At this convention, he participated in the deliberations over whether Maryland would accept the proposed federal framework, a decision that helped shape the structure and authority of the national government. His role in the ratification process demonstrated his engagement with the fundamental constitutional questions of the era and his support for the new federal system.

With the establishment of the federal government under the Constitution, Stone advanced to national office. He represented Maryland’s 1st congressional district in the First United States Congress, serving one term from 1789 to 1791. As a member of the Unknown Party representing Maryland—reflecting the fluid and evolving nature of party affiliations in the early republic—Michael Jenifer Stone contributed to the legislative process during this formative period. In the First Congress, which met in New York and later in Philadelphia, he participated in the creation of the basic institutions and policies of the United States, including measures related to the organization of the executive and judicial branches, federal finance, and the implementation of the new constitutional order. During his single term, he took part in the democratic process and represented the interests of his Maryland constituents at a time when the scope and powers of the federal government were being defined.

After his service in Congress, Stone returned to his life as a planter and local leader in Charles County. He continued to reside in southern Maryland, overseeing his agricultural interests and family affairs. In his later years, he lived on his own estate known as Equality, near what is now La Plata in Charles County. Michael Jenifer Stone died in 1812 and was buried on the Equality estate. His life and career, rooted in the colonial planter aristocracy and extending into the early years of the United States, linked the revolutionary generation to the emerging political institutions of the new republic, while his descendants carried forward the Stone family’s longstanding involvement in Maryland and national public life.